Australian jihadist 'cheerleader' returns to preaching on social media

Musa Cerantonio, a Catholic convert to Islam who lives in Melbourne and has
been labelled an influential supporter of Isil, resumed his social media
activity late last year

A photograph shared on social media on an unknown date of Musa Cerantonio holding a shahada flag in front of St Peter's Basilica

By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney

6:59AM GMT 07 Jan 2016

A notorious Australian jihadist sympathiser has returned to preaching on social media after allegedly going silent to avoid his followers in the Middle East being tracked by coalition forces.

Musa Cerantonio, a Melbourne-based Catholic convert to Islam, was once listed as one of the most influential preachers among foreign extremists fighting in Syria. He has previously used Facebook to call for battle against the United States forces and was labelled a “cheerleader" for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) in a report by King's College London.

The 30-year-old went silent after being deported from the Philippines in July 2014 but resurfaced on December 25 during an online event hosted by Abdullah el-Faisal, an Islamic preacher who spent four years in prison in Britain for inciting murder before being deported to Jamaica. Faisal, a former imam of London’s Brixton mosque, is a fervent supporter of Isil and allegedly helped to radicalise Richard Reid, the shoe bomber.

In Cerantonio’s new post on Facebook, the Australian appears in a photograph in front of St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican holding a shahada flag.

The image is undated and is believed to be at least two years old, according to The Australian newspaper.

Notorious Australian jihadist sympathiser Musa Cerantonio

In the video uploaded on Christmas Day, Cerantonio discussed the establishment of a modern caliphate and urged Muslims to leave non-Muslim countries.

“Only a few years ago, we were speaking about it with hope and sincerity, yearning for the establishment of Islam, and now we see it today before our eyes,” he says.